Darrell Issa to hear from Mike Mullen, Thomas Pickering on Benghazi

After months of delays, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hear testimony next week from the two men who conducted a review of last year’s attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Former Admiral Mike Mullen and Ambassador Thomas Pickering will testify on Sept. 19 as part of a hearing meant to examine the findings of the Accountability Review Board. Mullen and Pickering led the review panel and issued their report in December which found a number of needed security improvements but offered only mild criticism of State Department employees.

Text Size

-

+

reset

Kerry gets blasted on Benghazi

In addition to Mullen and Pickering, the committee will also hear testimony from two additional independent reviewers of the attack and family members of the victims who died, although the committee did not name the family members. The Sept. 11, 2012, attack killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and fellow Republicans on the panel have been highly critical of the ARB report, which they said failed to criticize or recommend punishments for those in upper management positions in the State Department. Republicans also argued the investigation by the ARB wasn’t thorough enough because witnesses weren’t allowed to read their testimony and not everyone in State involved with the response had been interviewed.

Mullen and Pickering volunteered to testify about their report in the spring, but Issa insisted that the two men sit for closed-door, transcribed interviews first. After Issa subpoenaed Pickering, the two men agreed to sit for secret interviews in June. It’s taken months for a public hearing to be scheduled after the two men were initially offered times to testify that they had already said wouldn’t work for them.

Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said he is encouraged that Pickering and Mullen will finally be allowed to testify.

“I have been calling on Chairman Issa to hold this hearing for months so that Ambassador Pickering and Admiral Mullen could have an opportunity to respond directly to false Republican accusations that they engaged in a whitewash at Secretary Clinton’s bidding,” Cummings said.

Issa last convened a hearing on Benghazi in May, when the criticism of the ARB report reached a fever pitch. Since then, Issa has engaged in a back and forth with the State Department over records.

Recently, Issa began pressing State to make survivors of the attack available to testify before the committee while also pushing for more documents that were produced in the course of the ARB investigation.

“From denying the Committee access to survivors of the attack to refusing to turn over key documents, the Administration’s continual reluctance to cooperate with our investigation is flatly unacceptable,” Issa said in a statement.

The State Department countered that they have been cooperating with Congress.

“It’s simply absurd to claim that the State Department has not been cooperative with Congress on the Benghazi issue,” State spokesman Alec Gerlach said. “The Department has not stopped a single employee who wants to share their story with Congress from doing so. We’ve taken part in more than 50 briefings and nine congressional hearings, produced approximately 25,000 pages of documents, and made 12 State Department officials available for full-day interviews with Mr. Issa’s committee.”

Next week’s hearing is likely to produce another round of criticism for the ARB report and the lack of discipline taken against State employees named in the report. In pressing Mullen and Pickering, Republicans are also likely to return to their criticism of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who some on the panel previously argued was protected in the report.

“Considering that the State Department’s ‘accountability’ review board has yielded no disciplinary action, none of the terrorists have been brought to justice, and we still don’t have key answers about what happened before, during and after the attack, Benghazi remains an important and unresolved matter,” Issa said in a statement.

Cummings, in responding to Issa, accused the Republicans of attempting to engage in political fights instead of real investigations.

“Although the Republicans have been conducting interviews and demanding documents all summer long in an effort to undermine the integrity of these two respected officials, the Committee’s investigation has in fact demonstrated that this was one of the most comprehensive ARB reviews in history,” Cummings said. “Rather than investigating the investigators for political reasons, I hope we can honor the memories of those killed in these attacks by focusing squarely on implementing the ARB’s recommendations to ensure the safety of our diplomats serving overseas.”

The hearing will be held at 9:30 a.m. in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.